Asthmatic elderly kitty

[FriendofFerals]

Hi!
So I have a former feral (3 years indoors now...estimated to be 16-18 years old) and after treating all his parasites and other issues, it's clear he has numerous environmental and food allergies as well as asthma. I've been giving him the Aerokat inhaler with albuterol as needed, and we started on steroid injections every 6 weeks to keep his inflammation at bay, but after a bad recent flare-up where the inhaler just wasn't working, a different vet from our usual one recommended Flovent instead of albuterol. He said it's expensive but you can get it cheaper out of Canada. I'm new to the asthma game...I'm more knowledgeable about diabetes, kidney disease, trigeminal nerve pain, and dental issues in cats, but the asthma thing is new. Does anyone here use Flovent in an inhaler on their kitty and would you agree it's better than albuterol?

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi, I use the Flovent, and albuterol. The Flovent is the steroid, so that is used daily and the albuterol is for an actual asthma attack. In the event the albuterol doesn’t stop the attack, I also have terbutaline in injectable form to give.

I don’t need to use the Flovent since my cat started Prednisolone for other issues.

 

[Furballsmom]

I've been giving him the Aerokat inhaler with albuterol as needed, and we started on steroid injections every 6 weeks to keep his inflammation at bay, but after a bad recent flare-up where the inhaler just wasn't working, a different vet from our usual one recommended Flovent instead of albuterol.

Hi, so which steroid were you using?

 

[lisahe]

One of our cats was diagnosed with relatively mild asthma in late 2019. She has been on a Flovent (known as Flixotide outside the US) inhaler ever since. Flovent is considered preventive, to keep the disease from progressing. Albuterol is used to ease attacks; this is sometimes called a rescue inhaler. Although Flovent doesn't work for all cats, it apparently works for most. It's worked very well for Ireland, particularly along with a transdermal antihistamine cream -- she's always had some allergies and I suspect they may have triggered her asthmatic coughing.

Basically, the thought is that you use the preventive inhaler so you can avoid using the rescue inhaler. You don't want to be using Albuterol all the time. I don't know how the steroid injections might affect your cat's treatment for asthma but Flovent is definitely worth using! And yes, it is much cheaper if purchased through a Canadian pharmacy. We used the time we waited for our first inhalers to throw away dusty old things in our house and do some cleaning! Every little thing helps when you're dealing with asthma.

Good luck!

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi, so which steroid were you using?

I was using the Flovent.

 

[Furballsmom]

I meant the OP

 

[silent meowlook]

I meant the OP

She was using albuterol

 

[Furballsmom]

Albuterol isn't a steroid, I thought

 

[lisahe]

Albuterol isn't a steroid, I thought

Right. The OP's cat was getting a steroid injection, though, apparently for inflammation/asthma.

 

[Meowmee]

Hi!
So I have a former feral (3 years indoors now...estimated to be 16-18 years old) and after treating all his parasites and other issues, it's clear he has numerous environmental and food allergies as well as asthma. I've been giving him the Aerokat inhaler with albuterol as needed, and we started on steroid injections every 6 weeks to keep his inflammation at bay, but after a bad recent flare-up where the inhaler just wasn't working, a different vet from our usual one recommended Flovent instead of albuterol. He said it's expensive but you can get it cheaper out of Canada. I'm new to the asthma game...I'm more knowledgeable about diabetes, kidney disease, trigeminal nerve pain, and dental issues in cats, but the asthma thing is new. Does anyone here use Flovent in an inhaler on their kitty and would you agree it's better than albuterol?

No I would not agree it is better than albuterol. Your kitty may also need a steroid inhaler in addition to albuterol. Albuterol is the number one rescue inhaler. My beloved Sybil had asthma and we used all of those things for her and in addition in the beginning we would give her prednisilone pills when she had an attack. The pills really helped her a lot.

Flovent is a steroid inhaler. It is not the same as albuterol. Albuterol is a rescue inhaler which opens the airways rapidly and is essential in an attack.. it is not a steroid. But she may need a steroid as well. Usually you use the albuterol first in an attack. And then you would use the steroid daily to help her. I don’t know if flovent is the only option there might be something cheaper. I don’t remember which steroid inhaler we used for Sybil now.

She was also using inhalers again more recently at the end of her life when she had HCM and congestive heart failure. But eventually the cardiologist said not to use any of the inhalers because it was bad for her heart.

She had a strange progression with her asthma…. after two or three years when she was younger she didn’t seem to need treatment anymore. And she stopped having attacks. When she was initially diagnosed they could tell it was asthma because there were little circular shapes of scarring on her lungs already from the asthma. She only ever had one steroid injection of Depo I believe. And it didn’t seem to help very much, the pills of prednisolone helped her a lot more. She was on the oral pills for a while until she stabilized and then we only gave him to her if she was having an attack.

* I forgot to say that using a daily steroid inhaler is much safer than the injections or daily pills because it does not have the same bad systemic effects of chronic steroid use that those can have.

albuterol is a fast acting bronchodialater, ( beat agonist) it rapidly relaxes the muscles around the airways so you can breath more easily in an attack. It also lets you cough up mucus etc. I have asthma and I use mostly albuterol. When I use the steroid inhaler I have a lot of symptoms that gives me sore throats and other symptoms so I tend not to use that every day even though I probably should. The albuterol almost always helps me pretty quickly I use one or two puffs. I have coughing asthma and not long after I use it I start coughing up the mucus and I can breathe more easily even faster than coughing up the mucus.

You should never use a long acting bronchodilator which some people are prescribed for asthma. The reason is it can cause severe harm, even death, to overuse this and you don’t want it staying in your system for a long time.

The reason is it can cause severe harm, even death, to overuse albuterol, and you don’t want that staying in your system for a long time. It can affect your heart and other things. One of the things long acting beta agonists ( albuterol is one) can do is to mask airway inflammation so that someone may not realize they are having a severe attack and you can also become less reactive to them that way so that they won’t help you when you really need them.